NEWS: Sanders, 12 Colleagues Urge Trump Administration to Ensure Americans Can Access Safety Net and Public Assistance Programs Without Unnecessary Red Tape

BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 4 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Attorney General Pam Bondi calling on them to reverse departmental guidance intended to throw people off of vital programs and services related to education, public health, job training and safety by requiring states, local governments and communities to unnecessarily verify immigration or citizenship status. These changes will also divert resources from community groups, agencies and providers toward meeting the added administrative burdens instead of delivering services and care for those most in need of assistance.

“These cruel and targeted actions are meant to confuse and undermine health care, education and social service providers. They turn back nearly three decades of precedent and will make our communities less healthy, less educated, and less productive. We urge you to rescind this guidance immediately, to ensure continuity of services for children, workers, adult learners, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, and seniors across the country,” Sanders and the senators wrote.

On July 10, the Trump administration reversed federal policy dating back to 1998 in order to restrict immigrants’ eligibility across a wide range of federal assistance programs — including for those who are lawfully present in the United States. The departments instituted this new guidance with no regard for congressional intent in creating many of these programs and without a public comment period to receive feedback.

“Your surprise actions will put millions of American lives in jeopardy by adding new barriers for individuals and families to access critical programs. They will shift costs and add administrative burdens to already strained state and local governments. Furthermore, your actions will have a chilling effect on otherwise eligible families, such as those with U.S. citizen children, lawful permanent residents, and even eligible U.S. citizens, who may lack the requisite paperwork or be deterred from seeking services available to them,” the senators continued. “Not only will the requirements make the delivery of services less efficient for all Americans, they could also lead to racial profiling or other discriminatory practices – beyond the discrimination inherent in the restrictions themselves.”

At the Health and Human Services Department, these changes will:

• Add unnecessary red tape to Head Start programs serving 800,000 children nationwide and have an outsized impact on nearly 25,000 children served by Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs across 34 states;
• Force mental health care providers to waste time screening for citizenship status instead of providing treatment for three million people who rely over 500 Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics and more than eight million people cared for through Community Mental Health Services Block Grant funding;
• Threaten to reverse progress in combatting overdose deaths by delaying or denying lifesaving treatment provided through Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grants; and
• Trap more people in poverty as assistance for housing, nutrition, utilities, transportation and job training provided through Community Services Block Grant funding are jeopardized for everyone who benefits from them.

At the Education Department, these changes will:

• Make it harder for anyone trying to access career and technical education at a time when higher education is unaffordable for working class Americans and when our country desperately needs more skilled workers;
• Create barriers for adult education programs in schools, libraries and community centers helping 1.3 million people advance their literacy, numeracy, civics, history and English skills; and
• Fundamentally threaten the principle of public education that it is free and available to any student as schools are forced to dedicate resources to verifying immigration status instead of bettering their communities.

At the Labor Department, these changes will:

• Significantly increase unfunded bureaucracy for state and local workforce boards that now have to verify work authorization, build technology to comply with substantive new requirements and submit compliance reports to ensure they can retain their funding;
• Deny career services to immigrants who form part of their local economies and who would otherwise have been eligible for workforce training programs; and
• Prevent some community members from gaining skills to contribute to the growth of the American economy.

“Your collective actions put lives at risk, turn back decades of precedent in our country and undermine what should be shared goals: supporting the health, education, well-being, and economic self-sufficiency of everyone who lives in this country,” the senators conclude. “We urge you to reverse these policies immediately to prevent further harm not only to immigrant communities but to the nation as a whole.”

Joining Sanders on the letter are Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

Read the letter here.